Emtc power saving mode (psm) enhancements for service outage

ABSTRACT

Certain aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communications and, more specifically, to enhanced or evolved machine type communication (eMTC) power saving mode (PSM) enhancements for service outage. An example method generally includes receiving, from a modem of the wireless node, a first indication that indicates at least one of: network connectivity or network accessibility at the wireless node; receiving, from an applications processor of the wireless node, a second indication that indicates at least one of: server accessibility or availability of one or more applications; and determining when to enter a PSM based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION & PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/277,937, filed Jan. 12, 2016, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety for all applicable purposes.

BACKGROUND

Field of the Disclosure

Certain aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communications and, more specifically, to enhanced/evolved machine type communication (eMTC) power saving mode (PSM) enhancements for service outage.

Description of the Related Art

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, data, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) including LTE-Advanced systems and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.

Generally, a wireless multiple-access communication system can simultaneously support communication for multiple wireless terminals. Each terminal communicates with one or more base stations via transmissions on the forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the terminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from the terminals to the base stations. This communication link may be established via a single-input single-output, multiple-input single-output or a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system.

A wireless communication network may include a number of base stations that can support communication for a number of wireless devices. Wireless devices may include user equipments (UEs). Some UEs may be considered machine-type communication (MTC) UEs, which may include remote devices, that may communicate with a base station, another remote device, or some other entity. Machine type communications (MTC) may refer to communication involving at least one remote device on at least one end of the communication and may include forms of data communication which involve one or more entities that do not necessarily need human interaction. MTC UEs may include UEs that are capable of MTC communications with MTC servers and/or other MTC devices through Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMN), for example.

An example of an emerging telecommunication standard is new radio (NR), for example, 5G radio access. NR is a set of enhancements to the LTE mobile standard promulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). It is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using OFDMA with a cyclic prefix (CP) on the downlink (DL) and on the uplink (UL) as well as support beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.

In some examples, a next generation network, such as NR or 5G networks, may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, otherwise known as user equipment (UEs). In LTE or LTE-A network, a set of one or more base stations may define an e NodeB (eNB). In other examples (e.g., in a next generation or 5G network), a wireless multiple access communication system may include a number of distributed units (e.g., edge units (EUs), edge nodes (ENs), radio heads (RHs), smart radio heads (SRHs), transmission reception points (TRPs), etc.) in communication with a number of central units (e.g., central nodes (CNs), access node controllers (ANCs), etc.), where a set of one or more distributed units, in communication with a central unit, may define an access node (e.g., a new radio base station (NR BS), a new radio node-B (NR NB), a network node, gNB, etc.). A base station or DU may communicate with a set of UEs on downlink channels (e.g., for transmissions from a base station or to a UE) and uplink channels (e.g., for transmissions from a UE to a base station or distributed unit).

Some next generation, NR, or 5G networks may support an uplink-based medium access control (MAC) layer. In these networks, a UE may transmit a pilot signal (e.g., a reference signal) for network access devices (e.g., distributed units) to receive and measure. Based on measurements of the pilot signal by one or more network access devices, the network may identify a serving cell (or serving distributed unit) for the UE. As the UE moves within the network, the network may make at least some mobility decisions for the UE (e.g., decisions to initiate a handover of the UE from one serving cell to another serving cell) transparently to the UE (e.g., without notifying the UE of the mobility decision, or without involving the UE in the mobility decision).

SUMMARY

The systems, methods, and devices of the disclosure each have several aspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirable attributes. Without limiting the scope of this disclosure as expressed by the claims which follow, some features will now be discussed briefly. After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading the section entitled “Detailed Description” one will understand how the features of this disclosure provide advantages that include improved communications between access points and stations in a wireless network.

Techniques and apparatus are provided herein for enhancing power saving mode (PSM) procedures in MTC and enhanced MTC (eMTC). Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to eMTC PSM enhancements for service outage.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a method for wireless communications by a wireless node. The method generally includes receiving, from a modem of the wireless node, a first indication that indicates at least one of: network connectivity or network accessibility at the wireless node; receiving, from an applications processor of the wireless node, a second indication that indicates at least one of: server accessibility or availability of one or more applications; and determining when to enter a PSM based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus for wireless communications by a wireless node. The apparatus generally includes means for receiving, from a modem of the wireless node, a first indication that indicates at least one of: network connectivity or network accessibility at the wireless node; means for receiving, from an applications processor of the wireless node, a second indication that indicates at least one of: server accessibility or availability of one or more applications; and means for determining when to enter a PSM based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus for wireless communications by a wireless node. The apparatus generally includes at least one processor configured to receive, from a modem of the wireless node, a first indication that indicates at least one of: network connectivity or network accessibility at the wireless node; receive, from an applications processor of the wireless node, a second indication that indicates at least one of: server accessibility or availability of one or more applications; and determine when to enter a PSM based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications; and a memory coupled to the at least one processor.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a computer readable medium having computer executable code stored thereon for wireless communications by a wireless node. The code generally includes code for receiving, from a modem of the wireless node, a first indication that indicates at least one of: network connectivity or network accessibility at the wireless node; code for receiving, from an applications processor of the wireless node, a second indication that indicates at least one of: server accessibility or availability of one or more applications; and code for determining when to enter a PSM based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications.

Numerous other aspects are provided including methods, apparatus, systems, computer program products, and processing systems. To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or more aspects comprise the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative features of the one or more aspects. These features are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of various aspects may be employed, and this description is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above-recited features of the present disclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to aspects, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of this disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the description may admit to other equally effective aspects.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example multiple access wireless communication system, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a base station and a wireless node, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary frame structure for FDD in a wireless communication system, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 shows two example subframe formats for a downlink with a normal cyclic prefix, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 5 and 5A illustrate example frame structures, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates a processing system that may be utilized for power management, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a call flow diagram illustrating an example power savings mode procedure, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations for wireless communications, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one embodiment may be beneficially utilized on other embodiments without specific recitation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Devices that operate in machine type communications (MTC) and/or enhanced/evolved MTC (eMTC) may be devices with limited communication resources, such as low cost MTC devices, low cost eMTC devices, low cost UEs, etc. The low cost MTC devices may co-exist with other (e.g., non-low cost) devices in a particular radio access technology (RAT) (e.g., long term evolution (LTE), etc.) and may operate on one or more narrowband regions partitioned out of an available system bandwidth that is supported by the particular operation, such as a coverage enhanced mode (e.g., where repetitions of the same message may be bundled or transmitted across multiple subframes), a normal coverage mode (e.g., where repetitions may not be transmitted), etc.

As will be described in more detail below, the techniques presented herein may allow for improved eMTC power saving mode (PSM) procedures resulting in improved power savings. Low cost MTC and eMTC devices may support different modes of operation including modes for reducing the power consumption of a device. One example of a reduced power mode includes a PSM. In the PSM, a device may enter a mode similar to power-off or power-down mode and may or may not remain registered or attached with a network. PSM enhancements for service outage can help achieve improved eMTC PSM savings.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a method for wireless communications by a wireless node. The method generally includes receiving, from a modem of the wireless node, a first indication that indicates at least one of: network connectivity or network accessibility at the wireless node; receiving, from an applications processor of the wireless node, a second indication that indicates at least one of: server accessibility or availability of one or more applications; and determining when to enter a PSM based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications.

The techniques described herein may be used for various wireless communication networks such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks, etc. The terms “network” and “system” are often used interchangeably. A CDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, etc. UTRA includes Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA), Time Division Synchronous CDMA (TD-SCDMA), and other variants of CDMA. cdma2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM®, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), in both frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD), are new releases of UMTS that use E-UTRA, which employs OFDMA on the downlink and SC-FDMA on the uplink. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A and GSM are described in documents from an organization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP). LTE and LTE-A are referred to generally as LTE. cdma2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2). The techniques described herein may be used for the wireless networks and radio technologies mentioned above as well as other wireless networks and radio technologies.

NR is an emerging wireless communications technology under development in conjunction with the 5G Technology Forum (5GTF). It is noted that while aspects may be described herein using terminology commonly associated with 3G and/or 4G wireless technologies (e.g., LTE), aspects of the present disclosure can be applied in other generation-based communication systems, such as NR technologies, including 5G and later.

An Example Wireless Communications System

FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communication network 100 with base stations (BSs) and user equipments (UEs), in which aspects of the present disclosure may be practiced.

For example, an improved enhanced MTC (eMTC) power saving mode (PSM) may be provided for certain UEs 120 (e.g., low cost MTC UEs, low cost eMTC UEs, etc.) in the wireless communication network 100 may be supported. According to the techniques presented herein, the UEs 120 may be multi-processor devices, for example, having an eMTC applications processor and a modem. The modem of the UEs 120 may handle network connectivity and network availability and provide a status report, for example, to a power saving mode (PSM) module of the UE 120. The applications processor of the UEs 120 may handle server accessibility and availability of one or more eMTC applications and provide a report to the PSM module. The PSM module may determine when send the UE 120 to a PSM based on the information received from the modem and applications processor.

Wireless communication network 100 (e.g., a long term evolution (LTE) or NR network) may include a number of base stations (BSs) 110 and other network entities. A BS is an entity that communicates with UEs. Each BS may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to a coverage area of an eNB and/or an eNB subsystem serving this coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. In NR systems, the term “cell” and gNB, Node B, 5G NB, AP, NR BS, NR BS, or TRP may be interchangeable. In some examples, a cell may not necessarily be stationary, and the geographic area of the cell may move according to the location of a mobile base station. In some examples, the base stations may be interconnected to one another and/or to one or more other base stations or network nodes (not shown) in the wireless communication network 100 through various types of backhaul interfaces such as a direct physical connection, a virtual network, or the like using any suitable transport network.

A BS may provide communication coverage for a macro cell, a pico cell, a femto cell, and/or other types of cell. A macro cell may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allow restricted access by UEs having association with the femto cell (e.g., UEs in a closed subscriber group (CSG)). A BS for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS. A BS for a pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS for a femto cell may be referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In the example shown in FIG. 1, a BS 110 a may be a BS for a macro cell 102 a, a BS 110 b may be a pico BS for a pico cell 102 b, and a BS 110 c may be a femto BS for a femto cell 102 c. A BS may support one or multiple (e.g., three) cells.

Wireless communication network 100 may also include relay stations. A relay station is an entity that can receive a transmission of data from an upstream station (e.g., a BS or a UE) and send a transmission of the data to a downstream station (e.g., a UE or a BS). A relay station may also be a UE that can relay transmissions for other UEs. In the example shown in FIG. 1, a relay (station) BS 110 d may communicate with macro BS 110 a and a UE 120 d in order to facilitate communication between BS 110 a and UE 120 d. A relay station may also be referred to as a relay eNB, a relay base station, a relay, etc.

Wireless communication network 100 may be a heterogeneous network that includes BSs of different types, e.g., macro BSs, pico BSs, femto BSs, relay BSs, etc. These different types of BSs may have different transmit power levels, different coverage areas, and different impact on interference in wireless communication network 100. For example, macro BSs may have a high transmit power level (e.g., 5 to 40 W) whereas pico BSs, femto BSs, and relay BSs may have lower transmit power levels (e.g., 0.1 to 2 W).

A network controller 130 may couple to a set of BSs and may provide coordination and control for these BSs. Network controller 130 may communicate with the BSs via a backhaul. The BSs may also communicate with one another, e.g., directly or indirectly via a wireless or wireline backhaul.

UEs 120 (e.g., 120 a, 120 b, 120 c) may be dispersed throughout wireless communication network 100, and each UE may be stationary or mobile. A UE may also be referred to as an access terminal, a terminal, a mobile station (MS), a subscriber unit, a station (STA), etc. A UE may also be referred to as a mobile station, a terminal, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a station, a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), a cellular phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a tablet, a camera, a gaming device, a netbook, a smartbook, an ultrabook, a medical device or medical equipment, a biometric sensor/device, a wearable device such as a smart watch, smart clothing, smart glasses, a smart wrist band, smart jewelry (e.g., a smart ring, a smart bracelet, etc.), an entertainment device (e.g., a music device, a video device, a satellite radio, etc.), a vehicular component or sensor, a smart meter/sensor, industrial manufacturing equipment, a positioning device (e.g., satellite, terrestrial), or any other suitable device that is configured to communicate via a wireless or wired medium.

Some UEs may be considered machine-type communication (MTC) devices or evolved or enhanced MTC (eMTC) devices. MTC and eMTC UEs include, for example, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, location tags, etc., that may communicate with a BS, another device (e.g., remote device), or some other entity. A wireless node may provide, for example, connectivity for or to a network (e.g., a wide area network, a cellular network, the Internet) via a wired or wireless communication link. Some UEs may be implemented as Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, such as narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) devices. Low cost UEs may co-exist with legacy and/or advanced UEs in the wireless communication network 100 and may have one or more capabilities that are limited when compared to the other UEs (e.g., non-low cost UEs) in the wireless communication network 100. For example, when compared to legacy and/or advanced UEs in the wireless communication network 100, the low cost UEs may operate with one or more of the following: a reduction in maximum bandwidth (e.g., relative to legacy UEs), a single receive radio frequency (RF) chain, reduction of peak rate, reduction of transmit power, rank 1 transmission, half duplex operation, etc.

Aspects, of the present disclosure provide apparatus, methods, processing systems, and computer program products for new radio (NR) (e.g., new radio access technology, 5G technology).

NR may support various wireless communication services, such as Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) targeting wide bandwidth (e.g. 80 MHz beyond), millimeter wave (mmW) targeting high carrier frequency (e.g. 60 GHz), massive MTC (mMTC) targeting non-backward compatible MTC techniques, and/or mission critical targeting ultra reliable low latency communications (URLLC).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a design of BS/eNB 110 and UE 120, which may be one of the BSs 110 and one of the UEs 120, respectively, in FIG. 1. BS 110 may be equipped with T antennas 234 a through 234 t, and UE 120 may be equipped with R antennas 252 a through 252 r, where in general T≧1 and R≧1.

At BS 110, a transmit processor 220 may receive data from a data source 212 for one or more UEs, select one or more modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) for each UE based on channel quality indicators (CQIs) received from the UE, process (e.g., encode and modulate) the data for each UE based on the MCS(s) selected for the UE, and provide data symbols for all UEs. Transmit processor 220 may also process system information (e.g., for semi-static resource partitioning information (SRPI), etc.) and control information (e.g., CQI requests, grants, upper layer signaling, etc.) and provide overhead symbols and control symbols. Processor 220 may also generate reference symbols for reference signals (e.g., the common reference signal (CRS)) and synchronization signals (e.g., the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS)). A transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, the control symbols, the overhead symbols, and/or the reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide T output symbol streams to T modulators (MODs) 232 a through 232 t. Each MOD 232 may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain an output sample stream. Each MOD 232 may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. T downlink signals from modulators 232 a through 232 t may be transmitted via T antennas 234 a through 234 t, respectively.

At UE 120, antennas 252 a through 252 r may receive the downlink signals from BS 110 and/or other BSs and may provide received signals to demodulators (DEMODs) 254 a through 254 r, respectively. Each DEMOD 254 may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) its received signal to obtain input samples. Each DEMOD 254 may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 256 may obtain received symbols from all R demodulators 254 a through 254 r, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols if applicable, and provide detected symbols. A receive processor 258 may process (e.g., demodulate and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for UE 120 to a data sink 260, and provide decoded control information and system information to a controller/processor 280. A channel processor may determine reference signal received power (RSRP), received signal strength indicator (RSSI), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), CQI, etc.

On the uplink, at UE 120, a transmit processor 264 may receive and process data from a data source 262 and control information (e.g., for reports comprising RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ, CQI, etc.) from controller/processor 280. Processor 264 may also generate reference symbols for one or more reference signals. The symbols from transmit processor 264 may be precoded by a TX MIMO processor 266 if applicable, further processed by MODs 254 a through 254 r (e.g., for SC-FDM, OFDM, etc.), and transmitted to BS 110. At BS 110, the uplink signals from UE 120 and other UEs may be received by antennas 234, processed by DEMODs 232, detected by a MIMO detector 236 if applicable, and further processed by a receive processor 238 to obtain decoded data and control information sent by UE 120. Processor 238 may provide the decoded data to a data sink 239 and the decoded control information to controller/processor 240. BS 110 may include communication unit 244 and communicate to network controller 130 via communication unit 244. Network controller 130 may include communication unit 294, controller/processor 290, and memory 292.

Controllers/processors 240 and 280 may direct the operation at BS 110 and UE 120, respectively. For example, controller/processor 240 and/or other processors and modules at BS 110 may perform or direct operations and/or processes for the techniques described herein. Similarly, controller/processor 280 and/or other processors and modules at UE 120 may perform or direct operations 800 illustrated in FIG. 8, and/or other processes for the techniques described herein. Memories 242 and 282 may store data and program codes for BS 110 and UE 120, respectively. A scheduler 246 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and/or uplink.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary frame structure 300 for FDD in a wireless communication system (e.g., LTE). The transmission timeline for each of the downlink and uplink may be partitioned into units of radio frames. Each radio frame may have a predetermined duration (e.g., 10 milliseconds (ms)) and may be partitioned into 10 subframes with indices of 0 through 9. Each subframe may include two slots. Each radio frame may thus include 20 slots with indices of 0 through 19. Each slot may include L symbol periods, e.g., seven symbol periods for a normal cyclic prefix (as shown in FIG. 2) or six symbol periods for an extended cyclic prefix. The 2L symbol periods in each subframe may be assigned indices of 0 through 2L-1.

In some wireless communication systems (e.g., LTE), a BS may transmit a primary synchronization signal (PSS) and a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) on the downlink in the center 1.08 MHz of the system bandwidth for each cell supported by the eNB. The PSS and SSS may be transmitted in symbol periods 6 and 5, respectively, in subframes 0 and 5 of each radio frame with the normal cyclic prefix, as shown in FIG. 3. The PSS and SSS may be used by UEs for cell search and acquisition. The eNB may transmit a cell-specific reference signal (CRS) across the system bandwidth for each cell supported by the eNB. The CRS may be transmitted in certain symbol periods of each subframe and may be used by the UEs to perform channel estimation, channel quality measurement, and/or other functions. The BS may also transmit a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) in symbol periods 0 to 3 in slot 1 of certain radio frames. The PBCH may carry some system information. The BS may transmit other system information such as system information blocks (SIBs) on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in certain subframes. The BS may transmit control information/data on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in the first B symbol periods of a subframe, where B may be configurable for each subframe. The BS may transmit traffic data and/or other data on the PDSCH in the remaining symbol periods of each subframe.

The PSS, SSS, CRS, and PBCH in LTE are described in 3GPP TS 36.211, entitled “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation,” which is publicly available.

In certain systems (e.g., NR, 5G systems), a BS may transmit these or other signals in these locations or in different locations of the subframe.

FIG. 4 shows two example subframe formats 410 and 420 for the downlink with a normal cyclic prefix. The available time frequency resources for the downlink may be partitioned into resource blocks. Each resource block may cover 12 subcarriers in one slot and may include a number of resource elements. Each resource element may cover one subcarrier in one symbol period and may be used to send one modulation symbol, which may be a real or complex value.

Subframe format 410 may be used for a BS equipped with two antennas. A CRS may be transmitted from antennas 0 and 1 in symbol periods 0, 4, 7, and 11. A reference signal is a signal that is known a priori by a transmitter and a receiver and may also be referred to as pilot. A CRS is a reference signal that is specific for a cell, e.g., generated based on a cell identity (ID). In FIG. 4, for a given resource element with label Ra, a modulation symbol may be transmitted on that resource element from antenna a, and no modulation symbols may be transmitted on that resource element from other antennas. Subframe format 420 may be used for a BS equipped with four antennas. A CRS may be transmitted from antennas 0 and 1 in symbol periods 0, 4, 7, and 11 and from antennas 2 and 3 in symbol periods 1 and 8. For both subframe formats 410 and 420, a CRS may be transmitted on evenly spaced subcarriers, which may be determined based on cell ID. Different eNBs may transmit their CRSs on the same or different subcarriers, depending on their cell IDs. For both subframe formats 410 and 420, resource elements not used for the CRS may be used to transmit data (e.g., traffic data, control data, and/or other data).

An interlace structure may be used for each of the downlink and uplink for FDD in some wireless communication systems (e.g., LTE). For example, Q interlaces with indices of 0 through Q-1 may be defined, where Q may be equal to 4, 6, 8, 10, or some other value. Each interlace may include subframes that are spaced apart by Q frames. In particular, interlace q may include subframes q, q+Q, q+2Q, etc., where q ε{0, . . . , Q-1}.

The wireless network may support hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) for data transmission on the downlink and uplink. For HARQ, a transmitter (e.g., a BS 110) may send one or more transmissions of a packet until the packet is decoded correctly by a receiver (e.g., a UE 120) or some other termination condition is encountered. For synchronous HARQ, all transmissions of the packet may be sent in subframes of a single interlace. For asynchronous HARQ, each transmission of the packet may be sent in any subframe.

In certain systems (e.g., such as NR or 5G systems), a BS may transmit these or other signals in these locations or in different locations of the subframe.

A UE may be located within the coverage of multiple BSs. One of these BSs may be selected to serve the UE. The serving BS may be selected based on various criteria such as received signal strength, received signal quality, path loss, etc. Received signal quality may be quantified by a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), or some other metric. The UE may operate in a dominant interference scenario in which the UE may observe high interference from one or more interfering BSs.

As mentioned above, one or more UEs in the wireless communication network (e.g., wireless communication network 100) may be devices that have limited communication resources, such as low cost UEs, as compared to other (non-low cost) devices in the wireless communication network.

Example NR/5G RAN Architecture

While aspects of the examples described herein may be associated with LTE technologies, aspects of the present disclosure may be applicable with other wireless communications systems, such as NR or 5G technologies.

New radio (NR) may refer to radios configured to operate according to a new air interface (e.g., other than Orthogonal Frequency Divisional Multiple Access (OFDMA)-based air interfaces) or fixed transport layer (e.g., other than Internet Protocol (IP)). NR may utilize OFDM with a CP on the uplink and downlink and include support for half-duplex operation using TDD. NR may include Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) service targeting wide bandwidth (e.g. 80 MHz beyond), millimeter wave (mmW) targeting high carrier frequency (e.g. 60 GHz), massive MTC (mMTC) targeting non-backward compatible MTC techniques, and/or mission critical targeting ultra reliable low latency communications (URLLC) service.

A single component carrier bandwidth of 100 MHZ may be supported. NR resource blocks may span 12 sub-carriers with a sub-carrier bandwidth of 75 kHz over a 0.1 ms duration. Each radio frame may consist of 50 subframes with a length of 10 ms. Consequently, each subframe may have a length of 0.2 ms. Each subframe may indicate a link direction (e.g., DL or UL) for data transmission and the link direction for each subframe may be dynamically switched. Each subframe may include DL/UL data as well as DL/UL control data.

Beamforming may be supported and beam direction may be dynamically configured. MIMO transmissions with precoding may also be supported. MIMO configurations in the DL may support up to 8 transmit antennas with multi-layer DL transmissions up to 8 streams and up to 2 streams per UE. Multi-layer transmissions with up to 2 streams per UE may be supported. Aggregation of multiple cells may be supported with up to 8 serving cells. Alternatively, NR may support a different air interface, other than an OFDM-based interface. NR networks may include entities such as central units or distributed units.

The RAN may include a central unit (CU) and distributed units (DUs). A NR BS (e.g., gNB, 5G Node B, Node B, transmission reception point (TRP), access point (AP)) may correspond to one or multiple BSs. NR cells can be configured as access cells (ACells) or data only cells (DCells). For example, the RAN (e.g., a central unit or distributed unit) can configure the cells. DCells may be cells used for carrier aggregation or dual connectivity, but not used for initial access, cell selection/reselection, or handover. In some cases DCells may not transmit synchronization signals—in some case cases DCells may transmit SS. NR BSs may transmit downlink signals to UEs indicating the cell type. Based on the cell type indication, the UE may communicate with the NR BS. For example, the UE may determine NR BSs to consider for cell selection, access, handover, and/or measurement based on the indicated cell type.

Example Low Cost MTC

In some systems (LTE Rel-13 or NR systems), a low cost UE may be limited to a particular narrowband assignment (e.g., of no more than six resource blocks (RBs)) within the available system bandwidth. However, the low cost UE may be able to re-tune (e.g., to operate and/or camp) to different narrowband regions within the available system bandwidth (e.g., of an LTE system), for example, in order to co-exist within the system.

As another example of coexistence, low cost UEs may be able to receive (with repetition) legacy physical broadcast channel (PBCH) (e.g., the LTE physical channel that, in general, carries parameters that may be used for initial access to the cell) and support one or more legacy physical random access channel (PRACH) formats. For example, the low cost UE may be able to receive the legacy PBCH with one or more additional repetitions of the PBCH across multiple subframes (e.g., bundled). As another example, the low cost UE may be able to transmit one or more repetitions of PRACH (e.g., with one or more PRACH formats supported) to a BS (e.g., BS 110) in the system. The PRACH can be used to identify the low cost UE. Also, the number of repeated PRACH attempts can be configured by the BS.

The low cost UE may also be a link budget limited device and may operate in different modes of operation (e.g., using different numbers of repetitions for messages transmitted to or from the low cost UE) based on its link budget limitation. For example, in some cases, the low cost UE may operate in a normal coverage mode in which there is little to no repetition (e.g., the amount of repetition needed for the UE to successfully receive and/or transmit a message may be low or repetition may not even be needed). Alternatively, in some cases, the low cost UE may operate in a coverage enhancement (CE) mode in which there may be high amounts of repetition. For example, for a 328 bit payload, a low cost UE in CE mode may need 150 or more repetitions of the payload in order to successfully transmit and/or receive the payload.

In some cases (e.g., for LTE Rel-13), the low cost UE may have limited capabilities with respect to its reception of broadcast and unicast transmissions. For example, the maximum transport block (TB) size for a broadcast transmission received by the low cost UE may be limited to 1000 bits. Additionally, in some cases, the low cost UE may not be able to receive more than one unicast TB in a subframe. In some cases (e.g., for both the CE mode and normal mode described above), the low cost UE may not be able to receive more than one broadcast TB in a subframe. Further, in some cases, the low cost UE may not be able to receive both a unicast TB and a broadcast TB in a subframe.

Example MTC Coexistence within a Wideband System

As mentioned above, MTC and/or eMTC operation may be supported (e.g., n coexistence with LTE or some other RAT) in the wireless communication network (e.g., wireless communication network 100). FIGS. 5 and 5A illustrate an example of how low cost UEs in MTC operation may co-exist within a wideband system, such as LTE.

As illustrated in the example frame structure 500 of FIG. 5, subframes associated with MTC and/or eMTC operation may be time division multiplexed (TDM) with regular subframes associated with LTE (or some other RAT). For example, regular subframe may occurring at time instances 502, 506, and 510 can be time division multiplexed (TDM) with MTC subframes occurring at time instances 504, 508, and 512. As shown in FIG. 5, in one example implementation, the number of subframe associated (e)MTC operation may be relatively small compared to the number of regular subframes.

Additionally or alternatively, as illustrated in the example frame structure 500A of FIG. 5A, one or more narrowbands used by low cost UEs in MTC may be frequency division multiplexed (FDM) within the wider bandwidth supported by LTE. Multiple narrowband regions may be supported for MTC and/or eMTC operation, with each narrowband region spanning a bandwidth that is no greater than a total of 6 RBs. In some cases, each low cost UE in MTC operation may operate within one narrowband region (e.g., at 1.4 MHz or 6 RBs) at a time. However, low cost UEs in MTC operation, at any given time, may re-tune to other narrowband regions in the wider system bandwidth. In some examples, multiple low cost UEs may be served by the same narrowband region. In other examples, multiple low cost UEs may be served by different narrowband regions (e.g., with each narrowband region spanning 6 RBs). In yet other examples, different combinations of low cost UEs may be served by one or more same narrowband regions and/or one or more different narrowband regions.

As shown in FIG. 5A, in a subframe 500A, the low cost UE can monitor a wideband region 508A for legacy control information and wideband regions 502A and 506A for data. The low cost UEs may operate (e.g., monitor/receive/transmit) within the narrowband regions for various different operations. For example, as shown in

FIG. 5A, a first narrowband region 504A (e.g., spanning no more than 6 RBs) of a subframe may be monitored by one or more low cost UEs for either a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), MTC signaling, or paging transmission from a BS in the wireless communication network. As also shown in FIG. 5A, the low cost UE can retune to a second narrowband region 510A (e.g., also spanning no more than 6 RBs of the wideband data) of a subframe to transmit a RACH or data previously configured in signaling received from a BS. In some cases, the second narrowband region 510A may be utilized by the same low cost UEs that utilized the first narrowband region 504A (e.g., the low cost UEs may have re-tuned to the second narrowband region to transmit after monitoring in the first narrowband region). In some cases (although not shown), the second narrowband region 510A may be utilized by different low cost UEs than the low cost UEs that utilized the first narrowband region 504A.

Although the examples described herein assume a narrowband of 6 RBS, those skilled in the art will recognize that the techniques presented herein may also be applied to different sizes of narrowband regions.

Example Power Savings Mode Architecture

For eMTC devices, for example, the Power Saving Mode (PSM) is a mode of operation to save power consumption. Due to the nature of eMTC applications, such as being infrequently active, having a short duration of active communication, etc., the objective of PSM is to allow the eMTC device to enter an “inactive” or “power-down” state, for example, for a prolonged duration and to “wake up” only for a brief time for the eMTC device to be “connected” with the mobile network or with the eMTC server in order to perform data transmissions and/or network configurations. The data transmission may be originated by the eMTC device (e.g., uplink transmission), but it is also possible to engage in downlink transmission during the “active” duration.

FIG. 6 illustrates a processing system 600 that may be utilized for power management, according to certain aspects. The processing system 600 is an example component of a wireless device that may be configured to implement the various methods described herein. The wireless device may be any of the wireless nodes (e.g., 120 a, 120 b, 120 c). For example, the wireless device may be configured to perform operations 800 described in FIG. 8.

The processing system 600 may include an applications processor (AP) 602 and a modem processor 604. In this example, MP 604 is attached to AP 602 and communicates with AP 602 via an interface 606. In other aspects, the modem chipset may include some or all of the functionality of the applications processor or vice versa, or the functionality of the applications processor and modem processor may be divided across any number of additional processors.

AP 602 may execute functional entities (e.g., implementations) of protocol layers. For example, AP 602 may be configured to execute an operating system and file system (OS 608) for managing resources, storage, and facilitating the execution of eMTC applications 610. Examples of eMTC applications 610 may include, but are not limited to, for example, a water or parking meter application. The AP 602 may also include a power management hardware and controller, such as a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 612 for interfacing with power management hardware. Additionally, power saving mode (PSM) interface and control tasks (PSM Task 614) may be run by the AP 602, for example, as a background task.

MP 604, for example, may be a multimode modem, capable of communicating with multiple radio access technologies (RATs), such as RAT 1, RAT 2, and RAT 3, and controlling the associated radios. MP 604 may also run a PSM interface and control task (PSM Task 616), as well as tasks corresponding to upper and lower layers of the RATs.

Example Power Savings Mode Procedures

Generally, a PSM operation cycle may include multiple stages. The first stage may be the PSM deep-sleep stage. In this stage, the eMTC device is in the “deep sleep mode”, which is a very low power state. The eMTC device is detached from the network. This stage may be of long duration (e.g., hours or days). The low power state during the long deep sleep mode may result in a long battery device for the eMTC device during this stage. For example, the power consumption during this stage may be on the order of sub-mA or lower.

The second stage may be a PSM Wake-up and Active stage. In this stage, the eMTC device may wake up from the PSM deep sleep at a time scheduled prior to entering the deep sleep mode. During this stage, the eMTC device can power up, attach to the network, obtain IP address, and perform “pre-scheduled” events per each eMTC application. During this stage, the NAS ECM state (and RRC state) may be in the “CONNECTED” state. This stage may be of short duration (e.g., tens of seconds or shorter), compared with the duration of the first stage. The power consumption during this stage may be on the order of tens or hundreds of mA. Upon completion of the “pre-scheduled” events, eMTC applications may inform the PSM task of the “readiness to enter PSM mode”. From this point on, the traffic channels may become “inactive”, but the NAS/RRC state may be still in CONNECTED. The PSM task may wait for the expiry of a so-called “Active Timer, Ta” in order to request the Modem to enter the “PSM deep sleep” mode.

The third stage may be an IDLE stage. In this stage, the eMTC device may enter the IDLE state due to the inactivity of the eMTC applications. The NAS ECM and RRC states may be in IDLE, while the eMTC device is still attached with the network and may perform “Idle” tasks. The power consumption level during this stage may be one the order of a few mA. The duration of this stage may be short.

In the fourth stage, the eMTC device may exit the IDLE stage and enter into an ACTIVE stage. The eMTC device may initiate a “detach” procedure with the network. In the fifth stage, the eMTC may power down and re-enter the PSM deep sleep mode.

FIG. 7 is a call flow diagram illustrating an example power savings mode procedure 700, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Although not shown in FIG. 7, after an eMTC device is powered on, either for the first time or from a previous PSM power down, the eMTC device may perform a network attachment procedure with a RAT and obtain one or more IP addresses from the RAT. eMTC device applications may performed any pre-scheduled events (e.g., uplink data transmission, etc.).

As shown in FIG. 7, AP 702 includes PMIC 704, eMTC application(s) 706, and PSM Task 708. MP 710 includes PSM Task 712, RAT upper layers 714, and RAT lower layers 716.

At 718, PSM Task 708 communicates with the RAT upper layers 714 for PSM mode configuring. For example, the PSM Task 708 and RAT upper layers 714 may exchange settings information such as, for example, supported PSM mode, PSM time threshold, and other supported PSM capabilities.

At 720, eMTC application(s) 706 register with the PSM Task 708. The registering can be performed via an application program interface (API). The registering indicates that eMTC application(s) 706 are PSM-aware.

Optionally, at 720 a, eMTC application(s) 706 may also send a request to the PSM Task 708 for the next time to wake up (e.g., or a PSM duration), indicating a period of time, from the current time, after which the device should wake up to allow the AP 702 to perform operations. The AP 702 may be statically configured to request a particular PSM duration. Alternatively, the AP 702 may be configured to determine a particular PSM duration dynamically, for example, based on a determination made by the AP 702, or in conjunction with an eMTC server on the network. After waiting a reasonable PSM duration request period to collect application registrations and PSM durations, the PSM Task 708 may determine, at 722, the earliest PSM next wake up time (T) for the next wake-up based on the one or more PSM durations received.

At 724, the eMTC application(s) 706 may perform operations for the current wake-up cycle. For example, eMTC application(s) 706 may transmit and receive data with a server or a server may configure the application. Prior to entering a next PSM power down period, the application may determine the application's traffic activity, for example, whether the application is done performing operations for the current wake-up cycle. The AP 702 may also determine and store a requested next wake up time, a corresponding system time, or other information into the file system for determining the another wake up time in another wake-up cycle after the next PSM power down period. At 726, eMTC application(s) 706 application indicates, to PSM Task 708, that the particular eMTC application is ready to enter PSM power down period.

At 728, PSM Task 708 requests, to PSM Task 712, to enter the PSM power down period at a PSM entry time. The PSM entry time may be based on information derived from the determination made at 730 regarding the PSM next wake up time T. At 730, the PSM Task 712 determines whether T is a proper time to enter PSM power down period. This determination may be based, for example, on a comparison between T and the PSM time threshold, if so configured. This comparison, for example, may be used to avoid entering PSM power down period too early or at otherwise inopportune times, which may result in adverse power consumption.

At 732, PSM Task 712 checks modem conditions to determine whether MP 710 is ready to enter the PSM power down period. Modem 710 may indicate that entering PSM power down period is inappropriate if, for example, there is a circuit switched or emergency call registered with the network. At 734, after a determination that entering the PSM power down period is appropriate, PSM Task 712 indicates to the modems to enter the PSM power down period. Prior to entering the PSM power down period, the modems may perform a detach procedure with the network. At 736, AP 702 also enters the PSM power down period. The device then enters the PSM power down period until the PSM next wake up time T requested at 712. While in PSM power down period, the device may not be reachable by the network as the device may be detached from the network.

According to certain aspects, the determination of the next wake up time (e.g., at 722) can be based on the minimum requested PSM duration. During a first wake-up cycle, an AP (e.g., such as AP 602 or AP 702) may receive a PSM duration from one or more (eMTC) applications. For example, a first application, App1, may request a first PSM duration (t1) of 8 hours, a second application, App2, may request a second PSM duration (t2) of 5 hours, and a third application, App3, may request a third PSM duration (t3) of 17 hours. The AP PSM Task (e.g., such as PSM Task 708) may then determine the minimum of the three requested PSM durations and set a PSM next wake up time T (or PSM duration) to the determined minimum time, in this example, 5 hours.

After time T passes, the AP may wake-up for a second wake-up cycle. The AP may again receive PSM durations from the one or more applications. Here, App2 may be configured with a static PSM duration and request a second PSM duration of 5 hours, the same as the first PSM duration. App1 and App3 may be configured to determine their respective PSM durations dynamically and request PSM durations of 3 hour and 12 hours, respectively. The AP PSM task again determines the minimum of the requested PSM durations and set PSM time T to the determined minimum time, in this example, 3 hours. Alternatively, App2 may be reconfigured by App2 servers during the first wake-up cycle with a different PSM duration, for example as discussed above in step 722 of FIG. 7. In this example, App2 is initially configured with a 5 hour first PSM duration, which is reconfigured as a 2 hour second PSM duration. App2 may then request the second PSM duration of 2 hours in a second wake-up cycle. The AP PSM task may then determine the minimum PSM next wake up time T is the 2 hour second PSM duration of App2.

In some cases, applications can be installed at random time instances. Devices may wake up and install one or more applications. When an application is installed, the application may request a PSM duration. For example, App1 may be installed during a first installation period. App1 may, during a first wake-up cycle after the first installation period, request a first PSM duration, in this example, 8 hours. The device may then enter a first PSM power down period for a duration of x hours when the device wakes up and installs App2. App2 may then request a second PSM duration, in this example, 5 hours during a second wake-up cycle after the first wake-up cycle. The second PSM duration, in addition to the x hours, may be less than the first PSM duration and App1 may, during a third wake-up cycle, after the second wake-up cycle, request a third PSM duration of 8-x-5 hours. This third PSM duration may be less than a PSM time threshold and rejected, as discussed above with respect to step 730 in FIG. 7. The AP PSM task may then determine the next minimum PSM next wake up time T as the 5 hour PSM duration requested by App2.

Example EMTC Power Saving Mode (PSM) Enhancements for Service Outage

The techniques provided herein may be used to advantage for low power devices, such as MTC, eMTC, IoT (Internet-of-Things), and/or NB-IoT (narrowband IoT) devices (e.g., such as UEs 120), that remain in low power states (e.g., long sleep cycles) much of the time and may wake up only occasionally (e.g., a few times a day) to send or receive data. Such devices may enter a “deep sleep” power saving mode (PSM), during which transceivers are turned off for extended periods of time.

Since the power consumption for eMTC devices is expected to be very minimum (e.g., on average over time) in order maximize battery life, it may be desirable to for eMTC devices to conserve as much power consumption as possible.

In certain scenarios, described in more detail below, which are generally referred to as “service outage” scenarios, normal PSM operation (e.g., as shown in FIG. 7 and described with respect to that figure) may be disrupted. The service outage scenarios may halt (e.g., prevent or delay) the eMTC device from entering the PSM deep sleep state, which may lead to additional power consumption and wasted network resources. Some of the scenarios may occur at the modem processor-side, while some scenarios may occur at the application processor-side.

Example UE Out-of-Service Scenario

In one service outage scenario, the eMTC device may be out-of-service (OOS) (e.g., with respect to RAT1, RAT2, and/or RAT3 shown in FIG. 6). For example, the eMTC device may be in an “any cell selection state”. The OOS scenario may be due to radio link failure (RLF), for example, caused by a physical layer out-of-sync issue, a medium access control (MAC) random access channel (RACH) failure, a radio link control (RLC) retransmission failure, an invalid radio resource control (RRC) configuration, a security failure, a handover failure (e.g., inter-radio access technology (RAT) handover or inter-frequency handover), etc. In general, exhaustive retry/retransmission at various layers may lead to OOS.

Typically, if the eMTC device detects that it is OOS, the eMTC device will try to find “any cell” by performing frequency or inter-RAT scanning. The scanning patterns (in time) are part of cell selection design for radio technologies. For example, each scanning time could be separated by T1, T2, T3, T3, T3 . . . , etc. The eMTC device repeats the scanning exhaustively until a cell has been found.

Thus, the eMTC is prevented from entering PSM while the eMTC performs the cell search. This may lead to excessive power consumption and may prevent the eMTC device from entering the PSM deep sleep.

Example Network Congested Scenario

In another service outage scenario, the mobile network (e.g., such as the RAT1, RAT2, and/or RAT3 shown in FIG. 6) is in “congestion” (or with any temporary issue) state. Network congestion can lead to protocol/signaling timeout at various layers.

Typically, when the network is facing congestion (or other temporary issue), the eMTC device (e.g., the modem) may retry to access the network or retransmit any buffered data. This “retry” may lead to 00S, which in turn may lead to excessive power consumption and may prevent the eMTC device from entering the PSM deep sleep.

Example Server Malfunction Scenario

In another service outage scenario, the eMTC server may be unavailable, for example, the eMTC server may not be able to communicate with eMTC applications (e.g., such as eMTC application 610), which may be due to an eMTC server problem or malfunction.

Typically, when the eMTC server is unavailable, the eMTC applications may keep trying to communicate with the eMTC server. This may cause unnecessary activities on the modem side, may cause additional power consumption, and may prevent the eMTC from entering the PSM deep sleep.

Example eMTC Application Malfunction Scenario

In another service outage scenario, the eMTC applications (e.g., such as eMTC application 610) may be in malfunction state. For example, the eMTC applications may not be in an “alive” state. For example, the application could be crashed, stalled, etc.

Typically, when an eMTC application is in the malfunction state or is not in the “alive” state, the applications processor (e.g., the PSM Task 614 of AP 602) will not receive a “readiness for PSM” notification from that eMTC application (e.g., at step 726 shown in FIG. 7); hence, the eMTC device is prevented from entering the PSM state (e.g., shutdown or deep sleep). This may lead to additional power consumption.

Example Loss of Service Scenario

In another service outage scenario, a failure may occur in system information block (SIB) read, access attempts, connection establishment attempts, RLF, and/or handover failure. These failures may result in the modem (e.g., MP 604) declaring loss of service.

Each of these failures are associated with a certain retry behavior before the eMTC device “gives up” (e.g., stops retry). These retry behaviors may lead to excessive power consumption, network access congestion, and/or may prevent the eMTC device from entering the PSM deep sleep.

Accordingly, techniques for enhanced PSM procedures in service outage scenarios are desirable.

Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for eMTC power saving mode enhancements for service outage. While the techniques are described with reference to eMTC power saving modes, those skilled in the art will recognize that the techniques may be extended to power saving modes of other devices.

FIG. 8 illustrates example operations 800 for wireless communications, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Operations 800 can be performed, for example, by a wireless node, such as a low cost UE (e.g., eMTC UE), which may be one of the UEs 120 illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The operations 800 may begin, at 802, by receiving, from a modem (e.g., such as MP 604) of the wireless node, a first indication of at least one of: network connectivity or network accessibility at the wireless node. At 804, the wireless node receives, from an applications processor (e.g., such AP 602) of the wireless node, a second indication of at least one of: server accessibility or availability of one or more applications (e.g., such as eMTC applications 610). At 806, the wireless node determines when to enter a power saving mode (PSM) based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications. Optionally, at 808, the wireless node may determine when to exit the PSM based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications. At 810, in response to first indication, the wireless node may perform, by the modem, at least one of: a limited number of attempts to acquire service or a limited number of attempts to retransmit buffered data. At 812, the wireless node may monitor, at the applications processor, for keep alive messages from the one or more applications, wherein the keep the alive messages indicate whether the application server is accessible. At 814, the wireless node may determine that the one or more applications are unavailable if a keep alive message is not received from the one or more applications at expiry of a timer. At 816, the wireless node may determine to enter the PSM immediately or after a predetermined duration in response to the second indication.

In a multi-processor architecture (e.g., including an application processor and modem processor such as the multi-processor architecture illustrated in FIG. 6), the processors may perform distributed eMTC functions and may be able to monitor and report various conditions related to service outage. For example, the modem may be responsible for network connectivity and network accessibility. The modem (e.g., MP) may report the information related to the status of the network connectivity and network accessibility, for example, to a PSM module (e.g., the MP PSM Task) of the eMTC device. The applications processor may be responsible for the eMTC server accessibility and eMTC applications. The applications processor may report information related to the eMTC server accessibility and the availability of the eMTC applications, for example, to the PSM module (e.g., the AP PSM Task) of the eMTC device. Using the information reported from the modem and the applications processor, the PSM module may determine when to enter the eMTC device to the PSM mode (e.g., to the deep sleep state).

According to certain aspects, based on the status information from the modem and applications processor, the PSM module may determine to “early enter” the PSM deep sleep state in the case of a service outage (indicated by the status information), which may avoid wasted power consumption and resources. The PSM module may also determine when to exit the PSM deep sleep state based on the information.

According to certain aspects, the determination of when to enter/exit the PSM may be based on a configurable timer/counter. The timer/counter may accommodate (e.g., be configured or adjusted based on) different types of eMTC applications and different types of eMTC devices. In aspects, the PSM module may configure modem behavior also based on the eMTC applications types.

According to certain aspects, since the modem may be responsible for network connectivity and accessibility and notifying the status to the PSM module, this may help address the OOS, loss of service, and/or network congestion service outage scenarios. For example, since the PSM module is aware of the OOS and/or network congestion, the PSM module may send the eMTC device to the PSM deep sleep without waiting for exhaustive retries to connect to the find the network, connect to the network, and/or access the network. In aspects, the retry behavior (e.g., the number and frequency of attempts) may be adjusted (e.g. limited) based on the eMTC device type and/or timers provisioned by the EMTC server and/or operator network. For example, the modem may be limited to a “sufficient” number of retries. The modem may perform a configurable number of network scans, for example. Alternatively, the PSM module may immediately send the eMTC device to PSM deep sleep based on receiving the indication (e.g., status information) indicating a service outage scenario.

According to certain aspects, since the applications processor may be responsible for eMTC server accessibility, availability of eMTC applications, and notifying the status to the PSM module, this may help address the eMTC server malfunction and/or eMTC applications malfunction service outage scenarios. For example, since the PSM module is aware of the eMTC server and/or applications malfunction, the PSM module may send the eMTC to the PSM deep sleep (e.g., immediately or after a duration or timer) without waiting for the eMTC applications to keep trying to communicate with the eMTC server or indicate their readiness for the PSM.

According to certain aspects, eMTC applications may send (e.g., periodically) “keep alive” messages to the PSM module (e.g., the AP PSM Task). The PSM module may monitor the health of the eMTC applications and the eMTC server based on the keep alive messages. The keep alive messages may indicate “eMTC is Alive”, for example, to indicate that the eMTC server and the eMTC applications are functioning and communicating properly. The keep alive messages may indicate “eMTC APP is alive but eMTC Sever is not” to indicate that the eMTC applications are functioning “alive” but the eMTC sever is unavailable (e.g., malfunctioning). If a keep alive message is not received from an eMTC application, the PSM module may determine that the eMTC application is malfunctioning or “not alive”. For example, the PSM module may maintain a timer and the PSM module may determine that the eMTC application is malfunctioning if a keep alive message is not received before the timer expires. The duration of the timer may be configurable (e.g., or adjusted) based on the types of eMTC applications and/or the eMTC device type. The PSM module may use the information about the health of the eMTC server and applications in determining when the eMTC device should enter the PSM deep sleep.

According to certain aspects, if the PSM module receives information (e.g., an indication) from the modem and/or the applications processor indicating one of the service outage scenarios (e.g., the eMTC is 00S, network congestion, loss of service, or the eMTC server and/or applications are malfunctioning), the PSM module may cause the eMTC device to enter the PSM deep sleep immediately. Alternatively, the PSM module may cause the eMTC device to enter the PSM deep sleep after a buffer period.

In addition, when the PSM module receives the information indicating the service outage scenarios, the PSM module may determine when the eMTC should exit the PSM deep sleep (e.g., wake up). In one example, the PSM module may determine to wake up at a time requested by the eMTC applications. Alternatively, the PSM module may determine to wake up within a window. For example, the PSM module may determine to wake up within a configurable amount of time earlier or later than the requested time.

As used herein, reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specifically so stated, but rather “one or more.” For example, the articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or clear from the context to be directed to a singular form. Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. Moreover, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or.” That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from the context, the phrase “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, the phrase “X employs A or B” is satisfied by any of the following instances: X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B. A phrase referring to “at least one of” a list of items refers to any combination of those items, including single members. As an example, “at least one of: a, b, or c” is intended to cover: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, and a-b-c, as well as any combination with multiples of the same element (e.g., a-a, a-a-a, a-a-b, a-a-c, a-b-b, a-c-c, b-b, b-b-b, b-b-c, c-c, c-c-c or any other ordering of a, b, c).

As used herein, the term “identifying” encompasses a wide variety of actions. For example, “identifying” may include calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in a table, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like. Also, “identifying” may include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory) and the like. Also, “identifying” may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing and the like.

In some cases, rather than actually communicating a frame, a device may have an interface to communicate a frame for transmission or reception. For example, a processor may output a frame, via a bus interface, to an RF front end for transmission. Similarly, rather than actually receiving a frame, a device may have an interface to obtain a frame received from another device. For example, a processor may obtain (or receive) a frame, via a bus interface, from an RF front end for transmission.

The methods disclosed herein comprise one or more steps or actions for achieving the described method. The method steps and/or actions may be interchanged with one another without departing from the scope of the claims. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions is specified, the order and/or use of specific steps and/or actions may be modified without departing from the scope of the claims.

The various operations of methods described above may be performed by any suitable means capable of performing the corresponding functions. The means may include various hardware and/or software component(s) and/or module(s), including, but not limited to a circuit, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or processor. For example, one or more circuits, ASICs, processors, devices, or components in the processing system may execute software. Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise. Generally, where there are operations illustrated in Figures, those operations may be performed by any suitable corresponding counterpart means-plus-function components.

For example, means receiving and/or means for obtaining may include a receiver, such as receive processor 238, MIMO detector 236, demodulator(s) 232 a-232 t, and/or antenna(s) 234 a-234 t of the base station 110 illustrated in FIG. 2 and/or MIMO detector 256, receive processor 258, demodulator(s) 254 a-254 r, and/or antenna(s) 252 a-252 r of the user equipment 120 illustrated in FIG. 2. Means for determining, means for performing, means for monitoring, and/or means for attempting may include one or more processors (or a processing system), such as controller/processor 240, scheduler 246, transmitter processor 220, receive processor 238, MIMO detector 236, TX MIMO processor 230, and/or modulator(s)/demodulator(s) 232 a-232 t of the base station 110 illustrates in FIG. 2, and/or controller/processor 280, receive processor 258, transmit processor 264, MIMO detector 256, TX MIMO processor 266, and/or modulator(s)/demodulator(s) 254 a-254 r of the user equipment 120 illustrated in FIG. 2. Means for means for transmitting, may include a transmitter, such as transmit processor 220, TX MIMO processor 230, modulator(s) 232 a-232 t, and/or antenna(s) 234 a-234 t of the base station 110 illustrated in FIG. 2, and/or transmit processor 264, TX MIMO processor 266, modulator(s) 254 a-254 r, and/or antenna(s) 252 a-252 r of the user equipment 120 illustrated in FIG. 2.

Those of skill in the art would understand that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or combinations thereof.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, software/firmware, or combinations thereof. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software/firmware, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software/firmware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the disclosure herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software/firmware module executed by a processor, or in a combination thereof. A software/firmware module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, phase change memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

In one or more exemplary designs, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software/firmware, or combinations thereof. If implemented in software/firmware, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD/DVD or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or a general-purpose or special-purpose processor. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software/firmware is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and Blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

The previous description of the disclosure is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for wireless communications by a wireless node, comprising: receiving, from a modem of the wireless node, a first indication that indicates at least one of: network connectivity or network accessibility at the wireless node; receiving, from an applications processor of the wireless node, a second indication that indicates at least one of: server accessibility or availability of one or more applications; and determining when to enter a power saving mode (PSM) based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining when to exit the PSM based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining when to exit the PSM comprises determining to exit the PSM at a time requested by the one or more applications.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein: determining when to exit the PSM comprises determining to exit the PSM at expiry of a configurable timer; and a duration of the configurable timer is based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first indication indicates at least one of: that the wireless node is out of service (OOS) or the network is in a congested state.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the OOS indication is based on detection of at least one of: a radio link failure (RLF), physical layer out-of-sync, a failure of a random access channel (RACH) procedure, a maximum number of radio link control (RLC) retransmission attempts, an invalid radio resource control (RRC) configuration, a security failure, a handover failure, a failure to decode a system information broadcast (SIB), or a failed connection attempt.
 7. The method of claim 5, further comprising: in response to the first indication, performing, by the modem, at least one of: a limited number of attempts to acquire service with the network or a limited number of attempts to retransmit buffered data.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the attempts to acquire service with the network comprise at least one of: frequency scanning, inter-RAT (radio access technology) scanning, or public land mobile network (PLMN) scanning.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the number of attempts is limited based on at least one of: a type of the wireless node, a type of one or more active applications, or a timer.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining when to enter the PSM comprises determining to enter the PSM immediately in response to the first indication.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining when to enter the PSM comprises determining to enter the PSM after a predetermined duration in response to the first indication.
 12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: monitoring, at the applications processor, for keep alive messages from the one or more applications, wherein the keep alive messages indicate whether the server is accessible; and determining that the one or more applications are unavailable if a keep alive message is not received from the one or more applications at expiry of a timer.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the second indication indicates at least one of: that the server is not accessible or that the one or more applications are unavailable.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining when to enter the PSM comprises determining to enter the PSM immediately in response to the second indication.
 15. The method of claim 13, wherein determining of when to enter the PSM comprises determining to enter the PSM after a predetermined duration in response to the second indication.
 16. The method of claim 12, wherein a duration of the timer is configurable based on at least one of: a type of the wireless node or a type of the one or more applications.
 17. An apparatus for wireless communications by a wireless node, comprising: means for receiving, from a modem of the wireless node, a first indication that indicates at least one of: network connectivity or network accessibility at the wireless node; means for receiving, from an applications processor of the wireless node, a second indication that indicates at least one of: server accessibility or availability of one or more applications; and means for determining when to enter a power saving mode (PSM) based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications.
 18. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising: means for determining when to exit the PSM based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications.
 19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein: means for determining when to exit the PSM comprises means for determining to exit the PSM at expiry of a configurable timer; and a duration of the configurable timer is based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications.
 20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the first indication indicates at least one of: that the wireless node is out of service (OOS) or the network is in a congested state.
 21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the OOS indication is based on detection of at least one of: a radio link failure (RLF), a physical layer out-of-sync, a failure of a random access channel (RACH) procedure, a maximum number of radio link control (RLC) retransmission attempts, an invalid radio resource control (RRC) configuration, a security failure, a handover failure, a failure to decode a system information broadcast (SIB), or a failed connection attempt.
 22. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising: means for, in response to the first indication, performing, by the modem, at least one of: a limited number of attempts to acquire service with the network or a limited number of attempts to retransmit buffered data.
 23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the attempts to acquire service with the network comprise at least one of: frequency scanning, inter-RAT (radio access technology) scanning, or public land mobile network (PLMN) scanning.
 24. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the number of attempts is limited based on at least one of: a type of the wireless node, a type of one or more active applications, or a timer.
 25. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein determining when to enter the PSM comprises determining to enter the PSM immediately in response to the at least one of: the first or second indications.
 26. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising: means for monitoring, at the applications processor, for keep alive messages from the one or more applications, wherein the keep alive messages indicate whether the server is accessible; and means for determining that the one or more applications are unavailable if a keep alive message is not received from the one or more applications at expiry of a timer.
 27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the second indication indicates at least one of: that the server is not accessible or that the one or more applications are unavailable.
 28. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein a duration of the timer is configurable based on at least one of: a type of the wireless node or a type of the one or more applications.
 29. An apparatus for wireless communications by a wireless node, comprising: at least one processor configured to: receive, from a modem of the wireless node, a first indication that indicates at least one of: network connectivity or network accessibility at the wireless node; receive, from an applications processor of the wireless node, a second indication that indicates at least one of: server accessibility or availability of one or more applications; and determine when to enter a power saving mode (PSM) based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications; and a memory coupled with the at least one processor.
 30. A computer readable medium having computer executable code stored thereon for wireless communications by a wireless node, the code comprising: code for receiving, from a modem of the wireless node, a first indication that indicates at least one of: network connectivity or network accessibility at the wireless node; code for receiving, from an applications processor of the wireless node, a second indication that indicates at least one of: server accessibility or availability of one or more applications; and code for determining when to enter a power saving mode (PSM) based, at least in part, on at least one of: the first or second indications. 